Railroad safety-switch



J. WOOD.

Railroad Switch No; 19,397. Patented Feb. 16, 1858.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH WOOD, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY.

RAILROAD SAFETY-SWITCH.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 19,397, dated February 16, 1858.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JosnrH Voon, of J er sey City, in the State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Safety-Switches; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1, is a top view of my safety switch as applied on a railroad showing the switch in one position. Fig. 2, is a similar view, showing the switch in a different position.

The nature of my improvement is to provide a switch to be used as a substitute for the ordinary rail road switchof such construction and arrangement that in whatever position it is set the cars cannot get off the track no matter in .what direction they are running.

In the accompanying drawings 70 70' rep resent an ordinary single track from which it is designed to establish a switch communication with the two tracks 6 c and (Z cl.

h k are compound rails composing the switch; they are hinged at O and O in the ordinary manner by a plate and pin.

G, G, G", G, G, are a series of bars attached to and supporting the compound rails and capable of sliding backward and forward and carrying the rails 71, h with them in the ordinary manner, in which switch rails are supported and moved. These rails it and h are so constructed that they fork into two parts a and a and a a.

O and O are two stationary guards fastened to the sleepers. The outer edge of c is parallel to the inner edge of (Z and the outer edge of c is parallel to the inner edge of e. The extremities p and p of c and c are curved inward toward each other slightly.

b and b are two safety rails attached to and moving with the sliding bars G, G, G". The safety rail 1) is parallel to the rail 0/ and the safety rail 6 is parallel to the rail a. Such is the arrangement of the forked rails a, a, a", a, and the safety rails b and 7) upon the sliding bars G, G, G". The bar G is attached to and moved by a lever s bolting into the catch T or T in a fixed arc.

The operation of this switch is as follows: I. If a train intends to pass from rails 70, 7c to rails e e or vice versa, the switch should be placed by the lever 8 into the posi tion shown in Fi 1. While the switch is in this position of course the cars must pass from 7c 70 to e e or from c e to 76 70. And if, by accident, a train should pass along (Z, (Z toward the switch, (while in this position,) the cars could not possibly leave the track, but the forked rail a a would so direct the flanges of the wheels on that side as to force the wheels of the cars to run upon a and upon the safety rail I), until the car reached the point p when the guard rail 0 would keep the wheels in position and direct them on to the track if 70.

II. If a train intends to pass from the rails 73 70 onto the rails (Z cl or vice versa, the switch should be placed by means of the lever 8 into the position shown in Fig. 2. Vhile the switch is in this position it is evident that the cars will pass from 70 7a to (Z (Z and from cl (Z to 70 70. If, by accident, (while the switch is in this position,) a train should pass along 0 6 toward the switch, then the cars could not leave the track, because the forked rail a a" would so direct the flanges of the car-wheels on that side of the cars so as to force the wheels to run upon the rail a and the safety rail 6 until the point p was reached, when the guard rail 0 would keep the wheels in direction and guide them onto the track 7c is.

The combined operation of the forked rail a" a, the safety rail 6 and the guard rail 0 in the first instance above mentioned prevented cars running off the track; and the combined operation of the forked rail a a the safety rail 1) and the guard rail 0 prevent the cars running off the track in the second instance above mentioned.

Having thus described my improvement, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is The combination of the safety rails b b, the forked rails a; a a" a and the guard rails c, 0' arranged and operating in the manner and for the purpose above described.

JOSEPH WOOD.

Witnesses THos. GAFNEY, PETER VREELAND. 

